Build your own 3D Printer Using LEGO

The Engineer

7 years ago

3D printers sure are becoming the talk of the day. We don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t be this famous. They can do almost everything; print guns, food that we can eat, printed prosthetic hands, rocket engine parts and the list goes on! While the wonders of 3D printers are amazing, their price is still a bit too high for many. One particular engineer aka Mastermind tackled this problem in a wonderful new way. Meet the author of Instructable, Matthew Krueger. He has managed to create a functional 3D printer using the LEGOs that were lying around in his house.

This whole project kicked off as a mere practical exercise. Matthew had an encounter during his college with a Makerbot and that had him gain interest in 3D printers and their uses. However, as with most of the students during their studies, he didn’t have enough cash to afford a ‘ready-made’ 3D printer. Must have been a real let down situation but he being an engineering student decided to change it. This resulted in Matthew building his very own 3D printer. He made use of LEGOs Digital Designer software to create a fully functional 3D printer using just a few hundred LEGOs, a motor from an old VCR and a hot glue gun. There you have it folks, that’s the arsenal you need and of course the genius mind of an engineer to achieve an operational 3D printer. The LEGObot takes commands from the LEGO NXT control module which runs the VCR motor and results in the activation of the print head!

Matthew has termed his LEGObot as a ‘of a prototype than a finished project.’ He hopes to eventually run it using the G-code and to make some mechanical improvements in the design. While yes, the LEGObot sure lacks the build volume and isn’t very classy nor too high end result oriented, it gets the job done. Above all, this sure is one heck of an innovation.